


Steven Universe Meta

by Fool



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Classism, Conflict, Feminism, Media Criticism, Media analysis, Mental Illness, Meta, Nonfiction, Patriarchy, Representation, Steven Universe meta, nonviolence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2019-07-14 01:01:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16029737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fool/pseuds/Fool
Summary: Current entries: misogyny and classism in the Pink Diamond reveal; holes in the Pink Diamond reveal; analysis of the line "No, [Rose] wasn't [graceful]"; analysis of the show's handling of nonviolent conflict resolution.





	1. Misogyny and Classism in the Pink Diamond Reveal

**Author's Note:**

> If this meta interests you, you may also be interested in my Rose Quartz is Rose Quartz AU, [The Darkness Between Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18007175/chapters/42542285). It engages with many of the points brought up here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers up to 5x24.

So, there's something I have to get off my chest about the recent Steven Universe episodes (5x17-5x24). I'm really... not pleased with the reveal and the way the following episodes handled it. I honestly feel really... "betrayed" sounds overdramatic, so let's go with "let down".

So, I theorized Rose shattered Pink Diamond long before we were told. The more we learned about Rose and Pink Diamond, the more I thought the theory they were the same person was absurd -- but the logistical details of just how implausible this scenario is are tangential here.

More than anything, the Rose-is-Pink-Diamond theory did not make sense to me  _thematically_. Steven Universe is a story about caste rebellion: about breaking out of the boxes people make for you, and fighting for that independence against those who would try to put you back in the box. A common soldier becoming a general who struck down an untouchable queen is the perfect apotheosis of that. In the story we were told, Rose Quartz is a nobody who becomes somebody, a commoner who  _becomes_  a princess because  _the caste system is a lie and anyone can be what they want_. I found that a very powerful, important, and relateable message. I want to believe that my life will not determined by the circumstances of my birth. I want to believe that anyone, even a nobody like me, can make a difference in the world. I want the kids watching this show to grow up believing that too. I really appreciated that Steven Universe gave me that message, and rejected the endless litany of royalty and genetics and bloodlines that so  _inundates_  our media.

But "A Single Pale Rose" flipped that on its head. Now Rose is just the age-old trope of the royal masquerading as a commoner. Now Rose did not break the caste system, she upheld it. It was never in question that diamonds could be whatever they wanted:  _they were the only ones who could be **and that was why the gem caste system was wrong.**_

What message does this send to us? That sure, commoners can rise up, but we still need to rely on royalty. It ironically reinforces the legitimacy of the caste system to learn that no, none of the gems would have rebelled if someone with privilege didn't teach them how to.

And, yeah, there's now also the subtext that if Rose really had shattered Pink Diamond, that would have been wrong. God, I used to insist the SU critical crowd was totally misreading the show when they said it was teaching people that resistance was wrong, but WELP GUESS THEY WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG. I used to think the show was so brave and nuanced for saying that Rose didn't want to kill someone, but sometimes that's really the only option and you have to hold the needs of the many over your own desire for ideological purity. Now PSYCHE, everything is sunshine and rainbows forever and what's really important is that we remember genocidal tyrants have feelings too!

(God, I saw red when Blue told  _the people whose friends she murdered_  that they "couldn't understand the grief she's endured". The diamonds got the smallest taste of the way they treat other gems on a regular basis, and they act like it is the greatest injustice in all history. Yeah, they deserve sympathy, but not more than their victims.)

Just... I know I said I didn't want to get into the logistics, but like, the war apparently lasted a thousand years. If Pink's "shattering" alone was enough to end the war, she could have done that right at the start and spared all those lives. Or she could have just, I don't know, told her soldiers to stop making Kindergartens? Pink got untold numbers of gems shattered because... why? Because she didn't want to sacrifice her privilege and power as Pink Diamond until she was in too deep? That's not "selfish", that's  **monstrous.**  Yet the show just... doesn't acknowledge this at all?

But the thing that upsets me the most about this is that it means all the Rose haters are right now.

I  _could not stand_  how awful this fandom was to Rose. I hated how disgustingly, brazenly misogynistic it was, aggressively misreading every single thing she did as "proof" for their day 1 assumption that she must be evil incarnate. I thought I loved that,  _ **FOR ONCE**_ , the fat, nice, extroverted older woman was exactly as she appeared. What a good message, I thought, to teach kids they shouldn't assume women are all lying vixens whose kindness exists only for ulterior motives! But no. The uppity fat woman is evil. Why should I have expected anything different.

I'm also bothered by what this means for Pearlrose... I was never bothered by their relationship before; it was flawed but they were believable and reasonable flaws, especially given that we know gems have trouble with empathy. But no, now Pearl is literally Rose's property and PROGRAMMED TO OBEY ROSE'S ORDERS. The fact that Rose magnanimously chose not to abuse her terrifying, absolute power over her partner does not make that power dynamic go away. That setup is incredibly disturbing and I really, really wish media would stop romanticizing it.

And I really just... do not agree with the apparent fandom consensus that Pearl "started the rebellion" now? I really don't understand how one can come to that conclusion. It looks to me that Pearl only facilitated what Rose wanted the whole time. I really liked the idea that Pearl and Rose were equal partners in forming the rebellion, that Pearl really was a renegade with her own ideas and agency. But now she was just going along with what Rose wanted the whole time.

It's just... sad. I feel like I've lost something wonderful. I loved Rose Quartz and her terrifying renegade Pearl. (Remember how "my" was supposed to be something you said to someone above you, like the diamonds, and not about ownership?) But now everything I loved about them was a lie.

This all feels like a case of subverting tropes so much you end up in a circle. Rose actually being nice and actually being a Rose Quartz  _was_  the twist, to me. It subverted longstanding narrative conceits about gender and class archetypes. By subverting the subversion, we've just gone back to "only nobles are allowed to matter" and "women are liars".

Everything after that has just been so... weird. It honestly feels like the show is parodying itself? It's just been this sudden whirlwind tour where everyone dumps their feelings on Steven and gets their entire character arcs resolved in a single episode. On the one hand I do like how cheerful it is and how it's giving us everything we want... but Steven Universe has never been that kind of show. It's a show where things frequently could  _not_  be resolved in 11 minutes with a hug and a pep talk, because it's a show that tackles heavy and real issues where the hard truth is that there is no easy solution. Like hey, remember when Lapis couldn't just get over her PTSD when it was convenient for Steven? I loved that episode for how brave it was and what a good message it sent. Now what am I supposed to think?

I just don't understand what's going on anymore. Did the writers just burn out? Was the original plan that Rose really did shatter Pink and the executives forced them to change it at the last minute, because murder is unacceptable but a child stepping over a battlefield littered with corpses is peachy keen? What even.


	2. Holes in the Pink Diamond reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers up to 5x18.

I originally didn’t want to get into debating the logistics of the Pink Diamond reveal, but it was brought to my attention that Rebecca Sugar said in an interview that they planned this from the start and no.

No.

**_No._ **

 

 

 

WE SEE HER GEM

IT IS NOT A DIAMOND

“Well, the diamond part would have been hidden by her body --”

 

WHEN TOPAZ FUSES WE SEE THE ENTIRE GEM

GEMS ARE SEE-THROUGH WHEN FUSING THIS IS CANON

(I also note that this is very late in the game -- the season 4 finale -- and is the point where they really should have started covering their butts if "Rose’s gem isn’t what it looks like” was an upcoming reveal.)

“Well obviously they couldn’t give it away that early so they _had_  to lie --”

GEMS DISAPPEAR DURING FUSION ALL THE TIME

THEY COULD HAVE JUST NOT SHOWN IT AND THEN GONE “ART ERROR LOL” IF ANYONE CALLED THEM ON IT

There is also a plethora of supporting evidence, like it being a major plot point with Amethyst that you can’t hold a shapeshift forever (and Steven couldn’t do it either, so you can’t even play the “diamonds are special” card to get out of that one), Pearl having the wrong gem position and color scheme, and all other diamonds having a different cut...

 

INCLUDING PINK DIAMOND.

I can believe they toyed with the idea during conception. But I do not believe for one second this was the plan from the start. Not unless the Creewniverse has a truly _obscene_  contempt for the concept of fair play. This twist actively contradicts every single setting rule previously established.


	3. "No, [Rose] wasn't [graceful]"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers up to 5x25.

This line (from 5x25, "Legs From Here to Homeworld") really bothers me.

Everything we saw of Rose up to this point was that she absolutely  _was_  graceful. She is portrayed as  _breathtakingly_  graceful in every scene she's in, in the way she's able to defy gravity to float with perfect slowness and deliberation in every movement, in the way the camera slows down and lingers on her every time she shows up. She  _oozes_  grace.

Her  _personality_  wasn't graceful, no. Her  _appearance_  isn't what we would normally associate with grace. But her movements and aesthetic were all about grace. I felt that was a really interesting and unique contrast – that she  _chose_  to look graceful despite not being graceful in all aspects all the time. This is clearly something she put effort into, corroborated by her having the most detailed, human-like, and traditionally beautiful appearance of the gems. She  _wanted_  to be graceful and to be perceived as graceful, and she succeeded. I think that's an empowering statement: by reframing the concept of gracefulness as something you can choose and cultivate rather than as an inherent trait, it gives hope to a lot of women like Rose who don't fit into society's standards of beauty and acceptable ladylike behavior that they can still be what they want to be.

How are we supposed to read that now? Are we supposed to laugh at it? Ha ha, it's so funny how the fat woman thought she was pretty when we all know that can never be true? Or worse, are we supposed to see it as an active deception? Is this part of this new mantra that Rose was a lying liar who lies? That cunning little minx, tricking us into thinking she was pretty and thus worthy of our respect! How dare she!

I want to believe those aren't the intended interpretations, but the message has gotten  _really muddled_  now. Those are absolutely the lessons some people are going to take from this.

This all ties back to this sudden… extreme infantilization of Rose. You can see how baffling and incongruous this is with her previous behavior just in the flashback in "Now We're Only Falling Apart" – the moment we get to the scene from "The Answer", Rose suddenly seems like a completely different person. (Pearl, too – look at how tense and aggressive she is. She looks like she's ready to murder Garnet at the drop of a hat, when she was giggling like a schoolgirl and fooling around with Rose just seconds before?) The Rose we have now could not possibly have led a rebellion. She no longer actively chose anything – she just kinda stumbled into making the right choices because they happened to align with her childish whims.

I get that there's something to be said for how girls tend to be portrayed as joyless and stuck-up in cartoons, and how it's good representation to show girls can be silly too. But Rose isn't a girl, she's a woman. And for women, the standard is reversed: media doesn't allow them to be  _dignified_. Rose was powerful representation in that she showed girls they could grow up to be powerful, dignified, and respected, to be complicated figures who make hard choices just like all the male generals and politicians they read about in history class, no matter who they were or what they looked like. Now we've lost that, and that makes me very sad.


	4. On Conflict and Nonviolence

I usually greatly enjoy nonviolent narratives in media. I think it’s a good message to show people that victory doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game, and that it’s important to acknowledge the humanity of your opponents.

But… it’s not quite the one-size-fits-all solution it’s often presented as. Not every conflict can be solved with nonviolence, and I think it’s good to reflect on why that is and where it breaks down.

There is a video game that I think demonstrates this really well. No, not _UnderTale_ – though it’s certainly relevant to this discussion – but a lesser-known game called _Last Scenario_. Tonally and thematically, it is remarkably similar to _Steven Universe_. The protagonist’s personality and modus operandi are nearly identical to Steven’s: he constantly strives to save everyone, he gives villains every possible out, and he ultimately redeems the villain through caring and empathy. He even wears an outfit with a red-and-yellow color scheme!

But I actually feel _Last Scenario_ pulls this theme off better than _Steven Universe_ , and after thinking about it, I believe I know why: _Last Scenario_ ’s conflicts are **horizontal** , while _Steven Universe_ ’s are **vertical**.

_Last Scenario_ is a story about a world war. Its conflict is between factions and individuals of roughly equal power and footing, all pointing weapons at each other and assuming it’s kill or be killed. The villains are, fundamentally, operating on the same level and with the same motivations as the heroes. In that scenario, empathy comes easily. Your problems really _are_ their problems, and understanding that can dispel the tension and paranoia that’s causing the conflict in the first place. “We don’t need to fight, I don’t want to hurt you,” is no longer just signalling you’re a nice person, it’s directly relevant to the nature of the conflict and a logical solution to the problem. They are only fighting you because they think you _will_ hurt them; if you can convince them otherwise, the conflict is completely solved. More than any one human actor, the true villain of the piece is _conflict itself_. Obviously the best way to defeat that is through nonviolence. It makes perfect sense.

Now, this was true of the early days of _Steven Universe_ as well. The gem monsters weren’t actively malicious, they were scared and lashing out. Lapis didn’t actively want to hurt anyone, she only caused collateral damage in trying to fix her own problems. Offered a better solution, she stops hurting people.

…Buuut things started breaking down after that. We never really address the fact that Peridot was supporting a project that was using tortured undead to blow up an entire planet; once she gets her sudden epiphany that she wants to be a good guy, all problems are solved forever. And even under the show’s framework, Jasper had to be written out instead of redeemed; the rubies, too, burn every olive branch Steven offers. Aquamarine shows active cruelty and malice even after Steven gets through to Topaz.

Now, I _thought_ this was meant to show us that nonviolence has limits: that Steven can’t solve every problem the exact same way. But then at the last second we abruptly swerve back into solving everything by hugging it out, even against the genocidal god-queens at the very top.

The reason this doesn’t work for me is the reason it didn’t work against Jasper, the rubies, and Aquamarine: because this is a vertical conflict. It’s not about two people at the same level fighting over something external, it’s about people abusing power against those weaker than them. If the true villain of _Last Scenario_ was conflict, the true villain of _Steven Universe_ is oppressive power dynamics. That is a _wildly_ different situation, and requires a different solution. Telling your oppressor “We don’t need to fight, I don’t want to hurt you,” is a non-sequitor. Oppressors do not act out of fear. (They _say_ they do, but this is a lie – another reason why I think forwarding this narrative is irresponsible.) While it’s possible to overturn a harmful system nonviolently, it looks completely different than the kind of one-on-one therapy sessions seen in horizontal conflict resolutions. It requires _engendering_ empathy in the other person, not just solving their problems; the harm they’re doing is habitual, not due to an external stressor that can be solved once and be done with.

So – the resolution with White (and the other diamonds) falls completely flat for me. I do not care that Yellow is stressed, Blue is sad, and White is insecure. That is not and never was the problem here. The problem is that they are mass murderers, and “Change Your Mind” did not solve or address that in any way. I am not even arguing they shouldn’t have been treated with sympathy at all – the problems experienced by an oppressor class can still be real and you can still care about that! But you can’t place an oppressor’s needs before the oppressed’s. Their victims have to come first.


End file.
